GQ Selects: October

1. Calvin Klein Collection Red Turtleneck

In the October issue, we did a story on how to wear a fine-gage turtleneck. That's a hard piece of terminology for men, because it sounds industry-related. You're seeing a lot of chunky sweaters and heavy knits you can put thing sunder and wear We love the idea of wearing it under anything. Until now, the turtleneck was seen as a stalwart from the '90s, something a little Sprockets-y. In this new incarnation, there's all these jewel tones. It's something that can take that grey flannel suit and give it a little bon vivant.

If you look back at pictures of construction workers from the '50s, the soles are always white, so this is a nod to the heritage of the workboot. But these new versions from Eastland and Timberland, in this case, are more refined and they don't have a big steel toe. You can wear with them tweed pants or denim jeans rolled up. It's this whole idea that these heritage pieces mid with something more utilitarian has come into style.

What I love about Billy Reid is he's a neo-traditionalist. He takes things like, this is a perfect example of a very original check shirt. All of his fabrics he designs himself. He went in and said, "There are a lot of ginghams and checks out there, I'm gonna do a hybrid of both." So he did this beautiful three-color check. Which is great when pairing it with loftier fabrics like tweeds, flannels, and corduroys. It gives it a little bounce and holds up with the weight of heavier fabrics."

BLK DNM is designed by Johan Lindenberg. He started this company a year ago and we loved it from the minute we saw it. He wanted to create a wardrobe of pieces every guy should have in his closet. He set out to make the best leather bomber jacket, fatigue jacket, sweatshirt, and in this case, he made the best pair of jeans.

If you look, it has all the trappings of an old Eisenhower jacket. The bomber jacket in this form became popular after World War II. In the '50s and '60s, greasers and punks and classicists wore it and it became that iconic jacket and it has never lost that pedigree, but it's definitely cut slimmer for a new clientele. It's a very thick leather, he specifically wants you to buy it, wear it on your motorcycle, shopping on a Sunday, whatever. He wanted it to be trim but thicker leather. You need to beat this up. This jacket, you'll have for 20 years.

The Tie Bar, this company is incredible because they make ties and pocket squares and tie bars, and they take our advice on a lot of things, and up until now, Thom Browne was the only one making a short tie bar, and he doesn't make them anymore. We got the guy from Tie Bar on the bandwagon, so when you're wearing a skinny tie, or a mini tie as I like to call it, the tie bars are all too wide. The tie bar should never go to the end. It should always have space. This is incredibly inexpensive, it's about $15.

Steve McQueen didn't design these but he wore them a lot and made them popular in the '60s and '70s and it's been consistently their best-selling sunglass. As much as we try to walk away from it, it always looks good. It's the plastic aviator that looks good on every face. One of the marks of that is the keyhole in the bridge, which flatters everyone's nose and makes the distance between the bridge of the glasses and end of the nose look flattering.

It's not that we're forsaking the silk tie, but we are putting it on the shelf for fall. We want guys to amp up their fall wardrobe, get a heavier weight suit, and a lot of times you can't wear that silk tie, you need something that holds up to the corduroys and flannels, but that's contemporary. There are a lot of wooly ties that are wide and fat—they can look like you've got a sock around your neck. The key to a great wooly tie is to keep it slim. It will tie a nice small knot, there's a dimple, and less fabric—you won't walk around looking like a pompous Milanese man. Just be careful and don't wear the same tweed in your tie.

Thom Browne's always putting a different spin on the dress shirt every season. He's doing something that's a real hybrid that I haven't seen that much, which is a button-down club collar. He finds a new way to reinvent the American button-down every season. This one we love because it's a two-color windowpane pattern so you're going to want to wear this with your quieter fabric suits and tweeds and sportcoats or a solid color cardigan. The tie is silk but it's beefier, it's heavily constructed and it will tie really stiff, with a strong dimple. I haven't seen the red power tie, or the red tie, since the '80s. This is the anti-Republican power tie.

We're in an era now where you've done the white pocket square and if you want to stick with that, do something with edging, like the Tie Bar pocket square—it's not expensive, a guy can have fun with it, have a dozen of them in your top drawer. It's the finishing touch. Get yourself ready, pick out your shirt and tie, and before you walk out the door, you stand in front of the mirror and pick out what kind of pocket square will go well. These, for me, are surefire bets. The gingham will go with anything, unless you wear it with a gingham shirt, which you will not.

It seems like every season we fall in love with the cargo pant. Closed is an Italian brand that's been around for about 30 years, and since then the company has closed and reopened with their original mantra, which was utilitarian-inspired clothing. There is a very quality product, it's not a cheap pair of cargo points, there's hand detailing, hand washing, it's very slim, and the pockets are strategically placed.

Etro is known for their quality and their slimness. It's an Italian dynasty, it's a family. Kean Etro, the designer, is witty and fast thinking. The Italians do it better than Americans, they've been wearing short, slim coats for a long time and this is the perfect example of a coat you should wear over your slim fall suit. It's alpaca and cashmere and wool so it's soft, but because of the quality, it will wear well. The signature lining is always paisley or a stripe. It's very luxurious, and it's worth the money.

This is a spirited argyle from Happy Socks, which is a relatively new and fast novelty-sock company. Argyle socks can sometimes look old-fashioned, and you don't want to look like you're pairing it with a kilt, you want a cool argyle. This combination is a little punky, liked red, black and white, it always has a rock 'n roll twist to it, there are few things it won't look good with. Black jeans, a grey flannel suit, khakis, obviously you want to think about the rest of it, if there's a touch of red in your shirt, or you're wearing all black, it's a great accent. This is a sock for all seasons.

In the October issue, we did a story on how to wear a fine-gage turtleneck. That's a hard piece of terminology for men, because it sounds industry-related. You're seeing a lot of chunky sweaters and heavy knits you can put thing sunder and wear We love the idea of wearing it under anything. Until now, the turtleneck was seen as a stalwart from the '90s, something a little Sprockets-y. In this new incarnation, there's all these jewel tones. It's something that can take that grey flannel suit and give it a little bon vivant.